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Vikings' comeback sinks Fitchburg State

By Shaun Suhoski, Correspondent

Updated:
11/16/2012 12:45:09 PM EST

FITCHBURG -- Salem State University used a consistent effort to overcome an early three-goal deficit and upend Fitchburg State, 5-3, Thursday night in a closely fought ice hockey contest at the Wallace Civic Center.

In a three-minute span midway through the first period, the Falcons tallied three unanswered goals to presumptively take command of the game.

"We were getting pucks to the net and going to the net well," said Fitchburg coach Dean Fuller after his team fell to 1-3-1 overall. "They gave up some rebounds so we were able to take advantage of that. It was a nice little spurt, but ..."

But ... The Vikings (2-1) got back into the game when Andrew Bettencourt rifled a wrister past FSU goalie Randy Wolcott (44 saves) with just two minutes left in the first period. Then they carried the momentum into the second period, clawing their way back on Bettencourt's second goal just 1:25 into the period and a Chad Goodwin score made possible by Kyle Phelan's speed rush down left wing and nice feed out front.

With Fitchburg's John Celli ejected on a five-minute major and game disqualification due to a hit to the head, Salem State showed patience on the power play, sending the puck around the horn until Ryan Connolly fed Cam Moniz in the slot for what proved to be the game-winner with 2:31 left in the second period. Andrew Bucci potted an empty-netter with 26 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.

"Salem's always good," said Fuller, now in his 29th season at the FSU helm. "It's a good rivalry.

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I'm not surprised that it was the type of game it was. We're a young team that battled hard for 60 minutes. So there's a lot of positive things."

"I thought (Wolcott) was fantastic," said Fuller. "I thought he did a nice job. He controlled a lot of rebounds. The game certainly wasn't on him."

FSU's first goal came when Curtis Nikitas took a pass from Joseph Caveney in the neutral zone and drove up the left wing before beating Sutliffe through the five hole.

Then, on a power play, Max Lorenzen took a pass from Trevor Lawler on the point and blasted a one-timer from the right circle over the glove of Sutliffe.

The Falcons' final tally came just a minute later on an odd-man rush with Ryan Bedard dropping the puck to a trailing Timmy Genova, who wristed it home off the left post.

"We didn't win the hockey game tonight but we're going in the right direction. We've just got to hang together and keep working. We've just got to get focused on our next game on Saturday," said Fuller in reference to the upcoming 4:30 p.m. game at league foe Worcester State.

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